February 9, 2008

Something of a milestone occurred today for the iSteve family of webpages -- the ten millionth Page View, as recorded by Site Meter since I installed it just over four years ago. Of course, that's not counting visits to my articles on VDARE.comAmConMag.com, and so forth.

By the way, remember how every McDonald's restaurants used to have a big sign that said "70 Billion Hamburgers Served," and then "80 Billion Hamburgers Served," and then "90 Billion Hamburgers Served"? They were on track to reach 100 billion in the mid-1990s, and I was looking forward to watching President Bill Clinton eat the ceremonial 100 billionth McDonald's hamburger. As an American, having Clinton as head of state was pretty embarrassing most of the time, but here, finally, the man and the moment were about to come together in historic harmony.

And then ... nothing. No McDonald's sign ever read "100 Billion Hamburgers Served." Some of them switched to "Billions and Billions Served," and then the signs disappeared.

What's the story behind the Great American Anticlimax?

I promise you, my fellow Americans, that I won't let you down like McDonald's did. When it's time for the 100 billionth iSteve page to be served, I will make sure there's a grand ceremony and Hereditary President Prescott Rodham Walker Bush-Clinton IV will telepathically download it personally.

The 1 billion mark, reached in 1963, was a big deal, noted in neon signs in front of every McDonald’s restaurant. The supposed 1 billionth burger was served by Kroc himself on national TV.

For much of the ’60s, the signs just said, “Billions Served,” then went specific again when the 5 billion mark was hit in 1969. It was 10 billion in 1972, 25 billion in 1978, 50 billion in 1984. In the late 1980s, McDonald’s was regularly selling 5 billion hamburgers a year; to avoid frequent updates, the signs were frozen in 1986 to read, “More Than 60 Billion Served.”

Riker said these numbers were projections based on how much beef was shipped to each restaurant. It was counted by hamburger patty—so the Big Mac, which contains two patties, indeed counted as two. (It hit the market in 1968.)

Today, the signs are all frozen in a generic, “Billions and Billions Served” or “More Than 99 Billion Served.” Riker said McDonald’s hasn’t counted since 1994 (at least not for public information) and never will again.

Why not? Riker would only say that the company wanted to “focus on other things.” (He added that constant sign updates were also a pain.)

It’s easy to see why. The signs once highlighted McDonald’s strongest selling point: a comfortably unchallenging, unchanging menu. But today, it may read as quantity over quality, and Americans have become much more interested in food nutrition and variety.

i always thought it had to do with peta and stuff -- that's a lot of cows... why bring it to everybody's attention. kinda like kentucky fried chicken became kfc so as not to remind everybody about how fat they are.

For much of the ’60s, the signs just said, “Billions Served,” then went specific again when the 5 billion mark was hit in 1969. It was 10 billion in 1972.

That's not quite right. I didn't learn to read until 1970 or '71, and the signs saying over 3 billion served were still a year or three in the future -- at least in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.

"When it's time for the 100 billionth iSteve page to be served, I will make sure there's a grand ceremony and Hereditary President Prescott Rodham Walker Bush-Clinton IV will telepathically download it personally."

Sorry Steve, but at the rate you're racking up hits, the ceremony will be presided over not by President Bush-Clinton, but by President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

But then, if not for your excellent web-site, I would never have heard of "Idiocracy" before all my friends did. Thanks to you, I was in on the beginnning of a trend, rather than hearing about it on the down-side.

Congratulations! Still, I was suprised and disappointed recently when I looked up your site's stats on Alexa. You're not nearly as popular as I thought you were. I guess you're so prominent in the part of the blogsphere I surf, and so central to my own blog reading, that I overestimated how many people actually read you.

Here's the Google Wallet FAQ. From it: "You will need to have (or sign up for) Google Wallet to send or receive money. If you have ever purchased anything on Google Play, then you most likely already have a Google Wallet. If you do not yet have a Google Wallet, don’t worry, the process is simple: go to wallet.google.com and follow the steps." You probably already have a Google ID and password, which Google Wallet uses, so signing up Wallet is pretty painless.

You can put money into your Google Wallet Balance from your bank account and send it with no service fee.

Google Wallet works from both a website and a smartphone app (Android and iPhone -- the Google Wallet app is currently available only in the U.S., but the Google Wallet website can be used in 160 countries).

Or, once you sign up with Google Wallet, you can simply send money via credit card, bank transfer, or Wallet Balance as an attachment from Google's free Gmail email service. Here'show to do it.

(Non-tax deductible.)

Fourth: if you have a Wells Fargo bank account, you can transfer money to me (with no fees) via Wells Fargo SurePay. Just tell WF SurePay to send the money to my ancient AOL email address steveslrATaol.com -- replace the AT with the usual @). (Non-tax deductible.)

Fifth: if you have a Chase bank account (or, theoretically,other bank accounts), you can transfer money to me (with no fees) via Chase QuickPay (FAQ). Just tell Chase QuickPay to send the money to my ancient AOL email address (steveslrATaol.com -- replace the AT with the usual @). If Chase asks for the name on my account, it's Steven Sailer with an n at the end of Steven. (Non-tax deductible.)

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